BNP Vice-Chairman M Hafizuddin Ahmed has been arrested along with a former army officer in Dhaka on charges of running propaganda against the state.

Hafizuddin, who is also a retired army major, was arrested at Shahjalal International Airport on Saturday evening following the arrest of former army colonel Muhammad Ishaque Mian at his DOHS home in Mirpur in the afternoon, police said.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court of Dhaka granted the law enforcers seven days to remand Ishaque on charges of conducting anti-state propaganda.

BNP Vice-Chairman Hafizuddin Ahmed. File Photo

The Rapid Action Battalion or RAB arrested and handed them to the Pallabi Police Station, OC Nazrul Islam said.

RAB-4 Assistant Superintendent of Police Sajedul Islam said they arrested Ishaque in the morning and Hafizuddin in the afternoon.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Deputy Commissioner (Mirpur Zone) Mostaque Ahmed said the charges against them were brought under the Digital Security Act.

They had exchanged false, misleading, imaginary and intentional speeches about the role of different government agencies via email, according to the case initiated by the RAB.

The RAB has charged Hafizuddin and Ishaque under sections 27, 31 and 45 of the Digital Security Act, according to Nazrul.

The sections of the act are related to offences like endangering national security through cyber-terrorism, destroying communal harmony, and aiding these offences.

Hafizuddin, the former water resources minister of the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami government, was arrested on return from abroad after treatment, according to BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

“He was receiving treatment in Singapore. I spoke to him over phone yesterday (Friday). He returned home to join a divisional rally tomorrow (Sunday). His ticket for a morning flight to Barishal has already been bought,” Rizvi said.

Hafizuddin was the secretary general of the BNP’s “reformist” faction during the 2007-8 military-controlled caretaker government.